An investigator fills out paperwork as more law enforcement congregate in the background around a silver Nissan Sentra belonging to Jody Wilson, owner of the Starlight Cafe on Roswell Street on the Square. (Staff/Leo Hohmann)

Jody Wilson, owner of The Starlight Cafe on the Marietta Square, has been charged with making terroristic threats and giving false statements, among a host of other charges after bomb threats Tuesday led to the evacuation of county courthouses in Cobb and Cherokee.Staff/file

A Woodstock man accused of making a false threat to blow up the Cobb and Cherokee county courthouses in January and May has been indicted by the Cobb grand jury.

The indictment against 43-year-old Jody John Wilson was handed down Thursday morning.

Wilson remains in the Cobb County Jail without a bond and his newly hired Marietta lawyer isn’t saying much of anything on his client’s behalf.

Wilson was arrested May 7 after being apprehended at his Roswell Street restaurant, The Starlight Café, which sits right across the street from the Cobb courthouse. He was arrested during the eatery’s busy lunch hour, less than two hours after he reportedly called in bomb threats to the Cobb County Courthouse from a nearby gas station on Roswell Street.

According to the indictment, Wilson is being charged with four felony counts of transmitting a public alarm by presenting a bomb threat when there was no bomb.

He could face up to 20 years in prison, or a maximum of five years per count, said Cobb’s Chief District Attorney Don Geary.

The indictment comes approximately six weeks after Wilson was arrested.

“This is a very serious case and we wanted to move on it as quickly as possible,” Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds said Thursday.

Wilson is accused of falsely reporting that on Jan. 2 there was a “destructive device” at the Cobb County Justice Center at 70 Haynes St. in Marietta and at the Cherokee County Justice Center at 90 North St. in Canton.

The indictments state that his other two counts are related to a third and fourth false report made on May 7 to both courthouses.

Original reports from the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office indicated that Wilson reportedly phoned in these threats from two separate gas stations in Marietta. One call was made at the Chevron station at 1501 Roswell Road and the call on May 7 was placed from a Citgo station on Roswell Street. Both calls were made to the Cobb 911 center.

Wilson’s attorney, Roger Curry of Marietta, declined to speak about the incident or say why a bond hearing has not been scheduled for his client, saying only that “other things are going on with that and it all depends on what happens there.”

He did say that Wilson is doing well but doesn’t like being in jail.

His client’s arraignment will be before Cobb County Superior Court Judge Jim Bodiford but a date has not been set.

If Wilson is released from Cobb jail, he will be taken to the Cherokee County to face more charges there.

The indictment has not been filed in Cherokee County yet.

Wilson’s home in Woodstock has been in and out of foreclosure since 2010, and Cherokee Sheriff’s Office officials have said that the alleged threats could have been at least partially motivated by an attempt to forestall those auction sales. That would not explain, however, why Wilson would have called in a threat to the Cobb courthouse, which has no jurisdiction over foreclosure sales in Cherokee County.

Wilson’s home was not up for sale on the Cherokee County courthouse steps on May 7. It was, however, slated to be sold on June 6, 2012, when another bomb threat was made to Cobb 911 from a Chevron gas station at 1501 Roswell Road. Though the call was made through Cobb 911, only the Cherokee courthouse was threatened.

Wilson has not been charged for the June 2012 threat.

As for the Starlight Café, it continues to stay open and operating under the direction of Lidya Wilson, Wilson’s wife.

Still all we have heard is that the man "or his car" was at a gas station where there is a pay phone assigned a phone number that was made to appear on 911's caller ID by someone who called 911.

So it's possible the cook borrowed the car to make a run for some sodas for the cooler. People go to gas stations every day. Caller ID is trivially faked. NO case.

Maybe they got more. Who knows. Maybe we'll see, some day. I doubt it though, as a lack of evidence combined with a belief that "we are JUST SURE we got our man, even though we can't prove it" would certainly lead to a vindictive pre-indictment incarceration of 6 weeks and counting.

I figure the Sheriff must think this jail time is the ONLY jail time the man will ever see because the sheriff must figure he has no case, like his usual case against the Mexicans where he holds them as long as he can just for annoyance's sake before turning them over to Immigration to be released since they didn't do anything other than, allegedly, some minor traffic violation.

But who knows.. Maybe there is some evidence they just ain't sayin' because, of course, it would make us less safe from the terrorists.

However, it makes a lot more sense that if we trained our sheriff to be lazy about Mexicans, sooner or later he will just be lazy about everything: Is this how the Sherrif feels?: "I am just SURE this is a bad man, so he is going under the jail regardless of evidence or court or such matters that only libs worry about. If you worry about such things, you make us less safe and you are just about committing treason!"

Your rambling is a assuming. I hope that you have a hobby to vent all of your negative energy.

If you have knowledge of civil rights injustices or if you have knowledge of vindictiveness within the judicial system, you should report it to the U.S. Department of Justice.

If you don't agree with Sheriff Warren and if you are qualified for the position, I believe that he is up for re-election in 2016.

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